When Washington pulled out of the Columbia River
Crossing bridge project, Oregon lost not just an equal funding partner, it also
lost Washington's experienced toll-collection organization, which was being
counted on to generate half the project's $2.6 billion cost.

View full sizeOregon needs to get into the toll collection business to fund the Columbia River Crossing bridge project. But Oregon may lack the legal authority to collect tolls from Washington residents. Columbia River Crossing

So Oregon is plunging ahead with plans to create
its own tolling organization, which the Oregon Department of Transportation
estimates could cost as much as $56 million.

But the Oregon tolling plan faces steep hurdles.

It's
unclear to what extent Oregon can pursue collections efforts against Washington
drivers who don't pay. Under existing Washington law, Oregon's toll
enforcers would not be able to reach into Washington and wield their most
powerful collection tool – blocking drivers' attempts to renew vehicle
registrations.

In
a Nov. 4 letter, Matt Garrett, Oregon Department of Transportation director, acknowledged
the thorny legal issues but offered little in the way of answers. Developing an
acceptable tolling plan "may require legislative action and/or rulemaking by
one or both states," Garrett wrote.

Oregon
clearly is looking to Washington for help. Conceivably, that help is on the way.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday he's calling the Legislature into
special session.

But the special session is largely about Boeing. Washington
pulled out of plans to replace the I-5 bridgein February and observers question why the conservative coalition
that now controls Washington's Senate would do anything to revive the project.

The
CRC has already spent more than $180 million. State leaders must now decide
whether it's time to cut their losses or to double down and devote more money
and time to the project

For his part, Gov. John Kitzhaber said Friday the
lack of clarity over CRC tolling is "the biggest uncertainty" plaguing the
project. Kitzhaber said he's not ready to walk away from a new bridge
connecting Portland and Vancouver, Wash., reasoning it would be irresponsible
to walk away from the $850 million promised by the feds until all options are
exhausted.

But lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are
increasingly uneasy with the Oregon-led plan. Kitzhaber pulled the plug on a
special legislative session this fall dedicated to the CRC, in part due to
doubts he had enough votes for the project.

Absent a special session, the Oregon Legislature
won't revisit the CRC until its February session.

Some lawmakers are actually happy to have
additional time. "Washington's "no" vote has given us the opportunity to revisit
the CRC," said Julie Parrish, R-West Linn. "We should look at that as a gift,
not as a license for desperate and rash decision-making."

When Washington lawmakers pulled out, they took
their $450 million with them. That made tolling even more critical. Backers are
counting on tolling to generate $1.3 billion of the $2.6 billion price tag.

The recent history of toll bonds provides little
comfort to skittish lawmakers. The Foothill-Eastern Transportation Corridor
Agency, which runs 39 miles of toll roads in Orange County, Calif., is said to
be on the verge of default, the latest of several high-profile toll projects to
run into financial trouble.

Todd Spence, a toll road analyst with Standard
& Poors, said he's cautiously optimistic about the sector as a whole. As
the cost of major infrastructure projects soar and tax revenues flatten, he
said, government will increasingly look to fill the funding gap with users
fees.

But it's also true, Spence said, that a steady
trickle of troubled projects have failed, often because planners overestimated
traffic.

These failures drive Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler
to distraction. Wheeler has emerged as a chief CRC skeptic. It's his job to
protect Oregon's credit rating and his office would have to sign off on the
$900 million bond sale if the CRC happens.

Wheeler declined to comment for this story. But
his office made clear his concerns about the project have not changed since he
wrote to legislative leaders on Sept. 26.

"It is premature to conclude that the project can
work, financially," Wheeler wrote. "I cannot overstate the importance of a
legally enforceable tolling agreement with Washington that includes clear
authority for Oregon to establish tolls, surcharges and late fees over the life
of the bonds. These provisions must be satisfied before an Oregon-led project
could be considered financially viable."

The days of the toll booth are long gone. The CRC
would use a cashless electronic system. Planners anticipate that frequent CRC drivers
would purchase an electronic transponder that would track each bridge crossing.
An overhead sensor links the transponder to the driver's account and deducts
the correct toll from a prepaid account.

But a significant percentage of drivers would not
buy transponders. And here's where toll collection gets tricky.

The system planned for the CRC would photograph
vehicles and their license plates as they cross. Toll collectors theoretically
will be able to track the identity of drivers as well as their addresses via
the license plate.

Some of these drivers, particularly on a busy, stretch of freeway like I-5, would be from the other side of the
country. Some would be from foreign countries. Extracting tolls from them would
be difficult.

One of the toll collectors' most effective
weapons is the threat of putting a hold on the scofflaw drivers' ability to
renew their vehicle registration.

The CRC anticipated using the Washington
Department of Transportation's tolling division to operate the CRC's tolling. Ironically,
the Oregon Legislature passed a bill last spring giving WSDOT authority to
collect tolls across the state line from Oregon drivers.

But because Washington dropped out, Oregon now needs
legal authority to collect tolls in Washington.

In the face of looming deadlines and
ever-increasing costs, state officials are hoping to find an easy path to
getting that authority. But as the Oregon Department of Justice advised on
Sept. 12, "enactment of similar legislation in Washington is optimal."